1. Introduction
The present discussion relates to a carbonized cellulose material having a graphite nanolayer on the surface thereof and a method of synthesizing the same, and, more particularly, to a carbonized cellulose material having a graphite nanolayer directly carbonized from cellulose fiber and a method of synthesizing the same.
2. Related Art
Recently, research into biomaterials such as seaweeds, forest products and the like has been actively conducted, and, particularly, attempts have been made to practically use the biomaterials in advanced new material development technologies, in which environmental, energy and nanotechnologies (NT) are combined with each other.
Typical examples of technologies using biomaterials may include technologies of synthesizing bioethanol using cellulose fiber such as corn and technologies of synthesizing a polymer-natural fiber composite material, using the biomaterials.
In particular, unlike conventional carbon-carbon composite materials and glass fiber-carbon composite materials, since the composite materials synthesized using biomaterials can be used to produce high-performance environment-friendly composite materiels, many countries have made efforts to develop technologies related to the synthesis of composite materials using biomaterials. Recently, research into preparing nanosized cellulose fiber and then using the nanosized cellulose fiber as a composite material has been actively conducted.
Such technologies of synthesizing a composite material using natural cellulose can be practically used in various fields such as materials for electrodes and batteries, adsorbents of harmful substances, materials for producing hydrogen, and the like.
However, conventional research on carbon composite materials using cellulose, disclosed in Korean Patent Registration Nos. 0610888 and 0852690, is problematic in that the carbon composite materials are prepared through complicated processes, such as a process of heat-treating cellulose with carbon precursors, for example, carbon nanotubes, a process of mixing cellulose with additional materials, for example metals and alcohols, and a process of pre-treating cellulose, thereby decreasing efficiency.
In order to overcome the above problems, Korean Patent Registration Nos. 0485603 and 0666276 disclose methods of synthesizing carbonized material by directly carbonizing cellulose. However, these methods are also problematic in that an additional mixing and pre-treating process is required, and in that the original cellulose structure is destroyed or amorphous carbonized material are obtained. Therefore, there are difficulties in obtaining graphite nanostructured carbonized materials having high crystallinity.